Lincoln the Lawyer

Brian Dirck

Publication Year: 2007

This fascinating history explores Abraham Lincoln's legal career, investigating the origins of his desire to practice law, his legal education, his partnerships with John Stuart, Stephen Logan, and William Herndon, and the maturation of his far-flung practice in the 1840s and 1850s. Brian Dirck also examines Lincoln's clientele, how he charged his clients, and how he addressed judge and jury, as well as his views on legal ethics and the supposition that he never defended a client he knew to be guilty.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright Page, Dedication

Contents

Preface

This book examines Abraham Lincoln’s law practice from his
perspective as much as possible, given the limitations of available
source material and the historian’s craft. In choosing what to include
and what to exclude in the narrative, my guiding question has been:
what would Lincoln have seen when he practiced the law? ...

Acknowledgments

The acknowledgments section for every book I publish on
Abraham Lincoln or the Civil War may well begin the same way, with
an expression of thanks to Philip S. Paludan. Currently the Naomi B.
Lynn Distinguished Chair of Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois–Springfield, Phil is my longtime mentor and friend. ...

Introduction

Sometime during the 1850s Abraham Lincoln wrote down
a few thoughts on the subject of being an attorney. They
read like the early draft of a speech, perhaps one that
Lincoln planned to deliver before a local bar association
meeting. The editors of the Lincoln Legal Papers plausibly suggest
they were intended for an address he gave at Ohio State and Union
Law College. ...

1. “Great God Almighty”

Russell Godbey spotted Abraham Lincoln straddling
a woodpile one day in the early 1830s, reading
a book. It was an odd sight in New Salem—an Illinois
village peopled by farmers who by and large weren’t
avid readers—though maybe not so much for Lincoln. People had grown used
to seeing him here and there, propped up and down and around at
strange angles, nose buried in a newspaper or book. ...

2. The Brethren

In many ways, Lincoln enjoyed less camaraderie with his
partners than he did with the Illinois bar in general. It was
a large brotherhood. Springfield was home to eleven other
lawyers when Lincoln first entered the profession. Most
of the surrounding communities, if they were of any size or substance
at all, sported at least one or two attorneys. ...

4. The Energy Men

James Frazier Reed came to Lincoln about a note sometime
in the early winter of 1845–46. Lincoln and Herndon’s law
office was at that time located in the Tinsley Building, near
Springfield’s busy central square. Getting to the office,
Reed would have dodged people, wagons, horses, oxen, and maybe
some pigs or a few stray dogs. ...

5. The Show

Of course, some risk taking Lincoln could not fix. Some
clients pressed their luck far beyond his capacity to
be of any help. A few months after James Reed lost his
debt case to William Butler, he decided that Springfield
was no longer a promising business environment; the entire region
had undergone an economic downturn. ...

6. Death and the Maidens

Leonard Swett followed Lincoln to Washington, D.C., when
he became president, one of several old friends from the
Illinois bar whom Lincoln brought with him. Some were
officeholders like Ninian Edwards, who became captain
commissary of subsistence, or Ward Hill Lamon, who was Lincoln’s
self-appointed bodyguard on the trip from Springfield, ...

7. Storytelling

Elizabeth Edwards was a good talker; it was a trait that
fit her lifestyle well. As one of the leading figures in
Springfield society, she and her husband Ninian hosted
frequent soirees at their large house on what was locally
dubbed “quality hill,” the high spot at the edge of town where
Springfield’s upper crust cloistered. ...

8. Grease

As storytelling goes, it all comes down to a matter of
metaphors. Various people have applied different metaphors
to Lincoln the lawyer. He has been a giant (or, for
some critics, pygmy) of the Illinois bar; a champion of
freedom (or, for some critics, its nemesis) and future emancipator in
the courtroom; ...

Conclusion

Let’s take Billy Herndon at his word, and imagine that
Lincoln really did want nothing more than a return to
his law practice at the end of his second term; a return
to the rusty shingle, “hanging there, undisturbed . . . as
if nothing had ever happened,” including John Wilkes Booth’s bullet. ...

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.